South Dakota

We spent most of yesterday travelling - two flights, hours in airports, then picked up our car and got lost trying to find Interstate 90. Eventually arrived in the little town of Wall, South Dakota about 3.00. We have a Mazda 5, I think. Today we drove through the Badlands. Another area where it is impossible to convey the scale of the place in photos. One of my ambitions on this trip is to see a bison so you can imagine how excited I was when we saw two early in our Badlands trip. We then rounded a bend and there was a whole herd of them. Hundreds of prairie dogs as well. Also saw a few dall sheep and,, oh yes, a rabbit. Went to Mt Rushmore after that. I drove from when we exited the Badlands National Park to Mt Rushmore. It takes me a couple of days to get used to driving on the 'wrong' side of the road so I was a little tense during the drive. US roads aren't as well signposted as ours and the little signs they have tend to be 100metres before the turnoff. I wasn't keen on going to Mt Rushmore but John wanted to. The lead up to it was tacky - all manner of tacky touristy things relating to presidents but Mt Rushmore itself was quite moving the way it is set up. We are now in a little town called Keystone. Were going to drive through Custer State Park but didn't think we would make it before dark so stopped early (and the road was a little icy). Booked in to a motel then found out that the whole town is closed - until May. Only two places to eat in the whole town and neither of them I would recommend. Tomorrow we are going to drive around Custer State Park then to Deadwood to do some research for our son Scott who is visiting there in December.